James Hebert

Writer

James Hebert is the U-T's theater critic, and has covered the San Diego arts scene for more than two decades. He earned his master's degree at Columbia University in New York and worked as a magazine editor in Boston before joining the U-T. Hebert's awards include a national arts-writing prize from the Society for Features Journalism (for a profile of the choreographer Twyla Tharp), and some two dozen local and regional journalism honors; his work also has been republished in two college writing textbooks. In 2009, Hebert served as a juror for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama.

Recent Articles

The latest show in La Jolla Playhouse’s POP Tour program — which commissions a new, youth-minded stage piece to visit local schools each year — is made up of scenes and stories about kids in military families. Lee Cataluna’s “Home of the Brave” (a co-commission with Honolulu Theatre for Youth)...

Both Cade Slattery and Ivan Salazar were still young kids when they decided to heed the beat of a different drummer — in about as literal a way as you can imagine. The two performers and former locals are now key cast members of “Stomp,” the percussion-centric stage phenomenon that gets its ensemble...

If you could diagram the intertwined lives of the people in Steven Dietz’s inspired “This Random World,” it might look like one of those M.C. Escher drawings where lines somehow connect without ever intersecting. But Dietz’s play is much more than some clever dramatic schematic. In its West Coast...

It’s true that “Beachtown,” the audience-interactive work that has its world premiere at San Diego Rep next month, is what could be called an “immersive” work of theater. That doesn’t mean there will be actual water on the stage. And there definitely will be no waves. But that hasn’t stopped Jason...

The San Diego Theatre Critics Circle has been presenting the Craig Noel Awards — honoring the best in local theater — for 16 years now. As a voting member of the group, I've been participating in the event for about a decade. In that time, I’ve seen a lot of moving and funny and poignant moments,...

For the 26th year, Kuumba Fest — the annual celebration of African-American theater, dance and much more — returns to San Diego Rep. The theme of this year’s edition, which begins today: “Black 2 Position.” The happenings kick off this afternoon with an Afro-Tourism Summit, plus a screening of...

The phrase “missed connections” might conjure thoughts of watching an airport gate close as you sprint toward it in desperation after a delayed flight into Cincinnati. (Doesn’t matter where you’re heading; you’ve always gotta go through Cincinnati.) Those aren’t quite the kinds of missed connections...

The thing about being an actor is (spoiler alert!), you have to portray other people who are not, in fact, you. That sometimes can mean learning new skills — or at least taking on the appearance of having learned them — well enough to play a character convincingly. Oh, and you might have only a...